Making it tougher

During the days of the Bush administration, I could be found at various protests wearing my Bush mask, a Guantanamo Bay orange colored jumpsuit, fake handcuffs, and a sign that read “War Criminal” on one side and “Impeach Me” on the other. My goal was to focus the public’s attention on the serious allegations being brought against then President George W. Bush and his cohorts. When I got someone’s attention I always tried to be clear about my goal of wanting to see Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al., investigated to the fullest extent of the law and, if found guilty, dealt with appropriately.

During that time I monitored what other folks were saying regarding the matter. Sadly, even though many would talk about the allegations held against Bush and his buddies, they would hardly ever say anything about taking them to court and almost 100 percent of the time concluded with they’ll never be held accountable.

Well, I think we all know what happened—absolutely nothing. That is, Bush, Cheney, et al. walked out of the White House as free as they came in. Why? My guess is that although there existed (and continues to exist) evidence to, at the very least, get them into a court of law, it was all the negative chatter that helped suppress what could have been a huge public outcry if only we had had a unified voice calling for justice.

But what does this have to do with veganism? I suggest a lot. If I had a nickel for every time a vegan has said, “Veganism is too difficult for most people”, and/or, “Most people are never going to go vegan”, I’d be a wealthy man. I believe this is what Professor Roger Yates defines as a “poverty of ambition“.

My question to these folks—both the ones who talk about the possible crimes Bush, Inc. has committed all the while stating they’ll never be brought to justice as well as vegans who feel the majority of the world will never go vegan—is, don’t you know your negative chatter makes it tougher for us to actually achieve these goals? That is, if I felt as strongly about an injustice as these folks claim to feel and also felt as strongly that the injustice was never going to end, at bare minimum, I would hope I would have the wherewithal not to impede those who were giving everything they have to end it in spite of my ambition challenged feelings.

In conclusion, it is my belief that once an injustice has been identified, one should do all they reasonably can to eradicate it by educating the public and actually calling for its abolition no matter what one personally feels the odds are against the goal knowing that historically speaking many pioneers of now ended injustices most likely felt the same way. Or, in the words of Elie Wiesel, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”